Even as Russian propagandists say that the Kremlin leader was not involved in the Russian doping program, something improbable on its face, Vladimir Putin had the kind of busy week in which he acted in ways that show he is involved in almost everything that goes on in Russia – and regrettably in other countries as well.

Asserting that no one in the world can create problems for Russia that it can’t overcome, Putin took a number of steps showing that he is quite able to do so on his own, including these:

He signed the so-called Sadist Law allowing jailers to beat prisoners with impunity.

He vetoed a Duma-passed measure – for the first time since 2012 – that might have helped local governments.

He denounced the practice of using Islam and terrorism in the same sentence. (It will be interesting to see if those in the US who so criticized President Barack Obama for making a similar argument will say anything about the Kremlin ruler’s declaration.)

But not all the news for Putin was good:

Polls showed that Russians were paying less attention to war and more to economic problems at home.

Russians are watching television less and turning to the Internet more, thus reducing the impact of his chosen means of maintaining control

Putin has Russia in so many wars now that Muscovites aren’t sure whom they’re fighting. A survey of Russians in the streets of Moscow by Radio Liberty journalists found that Russians are far from sure just whom they are fighting now.

And he can’t have been happy that the Parisian satirical journal published a cartoon about the crash of the Russian plane over the Black Sea with the legend that “the bad news is that Putin wasn’t on board.”

He said that the death of 75 people in Irkutsk from drinking an alcohol surrogate is a tragedy and justifies raising taxes on alcohol and restricting the sale of alcohol and surrogates during the holidays but that there is no reason to try to ban drinking in Russia as its problems are no worse than those in Scandinavian countries. The Russian president also blamed foreigners for what happened in Irkutsk, although he provided no evidence for that assertion. Meanwhile, Russian officials have banned the sale of some surrogates and restricted the sale of alcohol in Moscow during the upcoming holidays.

Edited by: A. N.

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Hey! Putin doesn’t care he’s rich as fk, why should he care about his slaves?
Doesn’t the CIA have a heart attack gun? They can easily take out Putin.

Oknemfrod

>The Russian president also blamed foreigners for what happened in Irkutsk, although he provided no evidence for that assertion.<

Anyone familiar with creative Russian "logic" knows that he doesn't need any evidence. Here's how his "logical" construct works: "If foreigners had visited Irkutsk and bought out all hawthorn bathtub tincture available in the city for their own consumption, the tragedy wouldn't have happened. Ergo, the guilt lies with the foreigners.". Sort of like the same "logic" applied by him to the MH17 tragedy: "If Ukraine had prohibited all civilian flights over Donbas, we would have shut down a Ukrainian military cargo plane instead. Ergo, Ukraine is guilty.".

Mykola Banderachuk

so nice to hear all this good news from a failing state called russia. more to come in 2017 this should be even more good news.

Romanivna

“…Kremlin leader was not involved in the Russian doping program,…”
rubbish

zorbatheturk

Jail the putin.

Czech Mate

I think we deserve to see the final act called payback with Putleristan in flames and the slaves turning on their midget master-jail would be an escape for the rat – lynch mob hearing Ghaddafi style is in order here.

zorbatheturk

It could well happen. RuSSia never really emerged from the Soviet dictatorship. It went straight to economic collapse then Putin’s mafia state. It needs a new constitution. It needs new leaders. It needs to burn down the FSB HQ. It needs to demilitarize.

Czech Mate

yep but we all know this will never happen at least not in the first half of this century-ruSSkie brains are way too behind for such sweeping changes.

About the Source

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. He has served as director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn, and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. Earlier he has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Euromaidan Press republishes the work of Paul Goble with permission from his blog Windows on Eurasia.

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